The present invention relates to an apparatus for the withdrawal of individual carton blanks from a magazine stack and conveying them to an adjacent conveyor.
Recent developments in handled packages has allowed for the high speed mating of bayonet handles with a carton blank. The bayonet handle package, described in pending U.S. patent application Ser. No. 07/566,159, filed Aug. 9, 1990, and incorporated herein by reference, and a continuous motion package assembling apparatus, described in pending U.S. Pat. No. 5,095,638 patented Mar. 17, 1992, and incorporated herein by reference, portray the rapid evolution within the packaging field. The above-referenced assembling apparatus and bayonet handle package allow rapid insertion of handles during the assembly of cartons.
To keep pace with the current technology, it has been necessary to increase the supply rate of carton blank stock to the machines referenced above. Apparatuses of the prior art are unable to supply carton blank stock in a rapid and synchronized fashion to keep up with capabilities of the new packaging technology.
An apparatus of this type is known from U.S. Pat. No. 4,369,961 which uses conveyor belts driven by an eccentric roll and a shaft drive to propel the carton blanks to an adjacent conveyor. However, with such an arrangement, as the speed of the conveyor belt increases so does the contact force and withdrawal power of the belts. For high speed, repetitive operations, the contact forces and withdrawal power reach excessive levels resulting in slippage, fouling, excessive belt wear and damaged blanks, all of which result in costly production stoppage.